A psychiatrist has been struck off for hugging and kissing a vulnerable patient in his care.

Salim Nayani's name has been removed from the Medical Register following a General Medical Council (GMC) Fitness to Practice hearing.

Nayani, from Kirby Muxloe, was working for the Northamptonshire Healthcare Trust when the woman, known as Patient A, came into his care in December 2003.

The GMC hearing, in Manchester, was told Nayani called the woman 150 times by mobile phone over a two-year period from April 2004 to April 2006. He also revealed to her that he had undergone a vasectomy.

The trust carried out an investigation and concluded Nayani was guilty of gross misconduct and had breached his duty of care towards a vulnerable patient by conducting an inappropriate relationship with her. Officials subsequently referred the issue to the GMC for consideration.

Nayani, who did not appear at the hearing to defend himself, was investigated by the police but the panel heard the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to proceed with a case against him.

A GMC panel spokesman said: "The panel has been provided with substantial written evidence from the interviews conducted between the police and Dr Nayani, and the trust and Dr Nayani, in which he has made a number of admissions."

The panel found that Dr Nayani overstepped the boundaries between a patient and doctor when contacting Patient A by mobile phone, taking her to a restaurant, discussing personal issues with her, sending her a greetings card, taking her to her accommodation and kissing and hugging her.

The spokesman said: "These actions are exacerbated given the serious nature of Patient A's psychiatric condition and her vulnerability, and could have misled her to believe that this relationship was more than just a clinical relationship between doctor and patient. Doctors occupy a position of trust and the panel found Dr Nayani abused that trust."

The panel also heard that Nayani was given an interim suspension from practising by the GMC in 2008 but that he still worked on nine occasions without telling his employers, Capita Health Solutions, Health Management Ltd and The Police Medicals Appeal Boards, about his ban.

The panel spokesman said: "The panel has found that Dr Nayani conducted an emotional relationship with a vulnerable female patient with a psychotic illness.

"Whilst there has been no evidence of direct harm to Patient A, the panel has found that Dr Nayani's conduct was inappropriate and was an abuse of his professional position. The panel has concluded that this amounted to serious misconduct."

She said the panel was satisfied Dr Nayani had brought the profession into disrepute and "breached a fundamental tenet of the profession, in that patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and wellbeing".

The Leicester Mercury visited Dr Nayani's home for a comment and was told by a man who answered the door that he was away on holiday.

Dr Nayani has a month to appeal against the GMC's decision if he wants to.